Veronica Cup 2025: Prathamesh Fuge wins compound men's gold medal

Indian archer Prathamesh Fuge overcame a tough challenge to defeat the defending champion Shamai Yamrom in the men’s compound final at the 2025 Veronica's Cup, a World Ranking Tournament, in Kamnik, Slovenia, on Sunday.

The Indian started the match on a slow note, falling 2 points behind the Israeli archer after two sets. The Indian, however, bounced back with three sets of perfect 30 to force a shoot-off in the final.

In the shoot-off, both Fuge and Yamrom shot a perfect 10, but the former won the gold medal by virtue of a 10-ring shot closer to the centre.

Earlier in the competition, Fuge defeated former world champion Nico Wiener of Austria and 2023 World Cup Final medalist Indian Prathamesh Jawkar, en route to the final.

Jawkar, after losing to Fuge in the semi-final, was up against Slovenia’s Tim Jevsnik in the bronze medal match.

The Indian picked up an early lead in the match with three perfect 30 in the first three sets. But a 28 and 29 in the fourth and fifth sets put him at par with Jevsnik’s score of 147, forcing a shoot-off.

Again, both the archers shot a 10 in the shoot-off, but by virtue of a closer to centre shot, the top-seeded archer, Tim, clinched the bronze medal.

This was Jawkar's first international tournament since his re-switch to the compound archery after the announcement of its inclusion at the LA Olympics.

Last year, Jawkar shifted his base to recurve archery to pursue his Olympic dream, but now he doesn't need to do that, as he can now pursue his dream via his pet category of compound archery.